


Even educated fleas do it

by seren_ccd



Category: Zoo (TV)
Genre: F/M, Sex Pollen, how is this my life?
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-07-20
Updated: 2017-07-20
Packaged: 2018-12-04 18:33:09
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,838
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11560956
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/seren_ccd/pseuds/seren_ccd
Summary: “It makes a kind of sense, actually,” he said tearing his glasses off and rubbing his eyes as he started to pace, on the opposite side of the lab, Jamie noticed.  “The animals have been steadily eliminating humans, but we still serve some use for them, so they don’t want to get rid of us completely.  It’s possible that they’ve noticed the sterility issue somehow and have engineered a way to get us to procreate.  I mean, I don’t think it’s going to actually be effective, but good on nature for giving it the old college try.”“Mitch, I swear to God, if you don’t stop talking and put your mouth to use on some part of me, I’m going to scream,” Jamie said quickly.Jamie/Mitch, season three, sex pollen.





	Even educated fleas do it

**Author's Note:**

> I have no excuse for myself. I really, really don't. I also have no idea where all the poetry came from. The title comes from Ella Fitzgerald's 'Let's Fall in Love'.
> 
> This takes place somewhere in season three.

“Well, isn’t this the original cabin in the woods,” Mitch said as he shined his flashlight into the interior of a cabin previously owned by a former colleague of Jackson’s father. “I’m waiting for the creepy cellar door to start opening.”

“Don’t jinx us,” Jamie said as she went past him, slapping him gently on the arm. “The last thing we need to contend with, on top of hybrid carnivores, is the supernatural.”

“Good point,” he replied aiming his flashlight at the walls. “Bookcase.”

“Here’s hoping we find the damn thing,” Jamie said as they walked across the wooden floor that sagged in several places due to woodrot and termites. She winced when she stepped on a board that practically disintegrated beneath her feet. “And I hope Jackson and Clem find the sample vials in that warehouse. Do you really think he knew about the hybrids?”

“I think that we’re running out of options and I’ll take what I can get these days,” Mitch said looking at the spines of the books.

“Yeah. Wow, this guy sure liked poetry,” she said as she pulled a well-thumbed copy of John Donne. “There’s Donne, Rimbaud, Browning… Oh, and Pablo Neruda. I always liked him.”

“’I don’t love you as if you were a rose of salt, topaz, or arrow of carnations that propagate fire; I love you as one loves certain obscure things, secretly, between the shadow and the soul’,” Mitch said casually.

Jamie looked over at him, and while he kept his gaze firmly on the books in front of him, she noticed that his cheeks looked a little flushed.

“You know Neruda,” she said. “I think I might be impressed.”

“If the only thing you are is impressed,” he said as he moved behind her and leaned in so that his lips hovered just over her ear, “then I didn’t quote it right.”

Jamie shivered a little at the warmth of him so close and half-heartedly glared at him as he walked into the other room. 

It had taken some time, but they were slowly but surely reaching an equilibrium with one another, not unlike how they’d been before the plane crash that had left Jamie stranded. They talked more, were more honest with each other, and listened a bit better and Jamie felt optimistic and just plain content as they relearned each other.

The outright flirting, however, was new and certainly not unwelcome.

“Ha, found it,” Mitch called and Jamie quickly replaced the John Donne. Mitch came into the room, squinting at the journal’s pages. “I can’t be sure, but I think he’s talking about the work he did with Jackson’s father.”

Before Jamie could respond, her walkie-talkie sounded.

“Jamie, this is Clem, over.”

Jamie answered. “Go ahead, Clem, over.”

“We found the vials that we think the guy was working on, and we’re heading back to the plane,” Clem said. “Looks like a nasty storm’s headed our way, so get on back here, over.”

“Will do,” Jamie said as Mitch put the journals into his satchel. “We found the journals, so we’re on our way back, over.”

“See you soon, over and out!”

“Shall we?” Mitch asked, gesturing for her to go first.

“Give me another quote first,” Jamie said wildly.

He blinked a bit, and then said, “Oh, uh, ‘Thou, sun, art half as happy as we, In that the world’s contracted thus. Thine age asks ease, and since thy duties be; To warm the world, that’s done in warming us. Shine here to us, and thou art everywhere; This bed thy center is, these walls, thy sphere.”

Jamie stared and okay, she felt a little bit more than just impressed. “John Donne?”

“That’s the one,” he said adjusting his glasses and looking at the ground.

“I liked it,” she said, smiling a little. 

Mitch met her eyes and gave her a small smirk that spelled for an interesting conversation later. Jamie laughed and turned away, heading towards the door. 

She was a foot away from the door when the floor gave away under her foot.

“Ah!” she cried out, as Mitch yelled, “Jamie!”

Together, they kept pulled her free of the rotting wood and Jamie winced. “Damn termites.”

“You okay?” Mitch asked batting at some bugs the flew into his face.

“Yeah, fine,” Jamie said waving away at the same bugs. “Wait… Oh, crap.”

Hundreds of juvenile termites flew up out of the hole in the floor and swarmed them both.

“Go, go!” Mitch shouted pushing Jamie out the door.

They ran towards through the pine trees that surrounded the cabin, and the termites kept up.

Jamie managed to grab her walkie-talkie and shout, “Get the door open for us! We’re surrounded by insects!”

She thought she heard a faint ‘Copy that!’, but she was too focussed on running to confirm it.

They cleared the trees and spotted the plane, Jackson in the door way, looking for them.

"Over here!"

Jamie swatted at the swarm of termites zooming around her face and did her best to run towards Jackson's voice.  Mitch's hand grabbed hers somehow despite being caught up in the same swarm and pulled her close.

"Keep going!" he shouted and Jamie nodded as they did their best to dodge the termites as they covered Jamie’s face and hands.

"Close your eyes!" Clem shouted as she appeared in the door to the plane with a one of their modified fire extinguishers in her hands.

Jamie had just managed to get her eyes closed when a very cold spray of compressed air hit both her and Mitch in the face.

The termites dropped back and they darted onto the plane, the door closing behind them.

Once inside, Jamie sucked in a breath and blinked her eyes open. 

"Oh, my God, that was not fun," she said as she brushed off her face and arms and then looked down at herself at an odd accumulation of splotches of purple...stuff. “What the hell?”  She glanced over at Mitch and winced at the same purple stuff on his face.  "You got a little something..."

"So do you," he said brushing the tip of her nose with his fingers.  He frowned and looked at it up close.  "I...do not know what this is."

“Some kind of pollen?” Jamie asked as she brushed at the powdery splotches.

“Yeah,” Mitch said rubbing the substance between his fingers. “I mean, those were juvenile termites, which means that building had to have been crawling with them. But I’ve never heard of termites spraying stuff. It certainly looks like pollen. You know what this means, right?”

"Oh, yes," Jamie said.  "It means that I get to take a very hot shower, right this second."

"Aren't you guys forgetting something?" Clem asked and Jamie looked up to see that everyone was now outside the lab with the doors shut, speaking through the intercom.

Jamie sighed.  "Crap.  The quarantine procedures.  Damn it."

"They were your idea," Clem sing-songed.

"Ugh, I know," Jamie said and she looked at Mitch who was still looking at his hands.  "Sorry."

"What? Oh."  He looked at her and then at the rest of the team who just grinned and waved.  "Cute.  And, it's fine.  Since I don't exactly know what the hell they sprayed on us, it's a good idea."

"I guess this means you want samples," she said holding out her hands.  "Have at it, professor."

He arched an eyebrow.

"Hey, sooner you figure out what this stuff is, the sooner we get clean," Jamie said.

"Can't argue with that," he said.  "Step into my office, Miss Campbell."

"Dad, you really need to work on your flirting technique," Clem said and Jackson snickered behind her.

"Yeah, I always thought you had game, Morgan," Jackson added.

"Hey, peanut gallery, intercoms off," Mitch said even as he guided Jamie to a stool to sit down.  "We only went out there to find that journal Jackson needed -"

"Which we did," Jamie said.

"Which we did, so if this gives us an extra finger or permanent spots, we know where the blame goes," Mitch finished.

Jackson and Clem both laughed, but turned off the intercom and moved away from the lab.

Mitch grabbed some swabs and swiped the computer on before he looked at Jamie, his glasses charmingly halfway down his nose.

"Is this where you tell me it won't hurt a bit?" she asked smiling a little.

"Please, no doctor clichés," he said smirking.  "And don’t worry, this won't hurt a bit."

Jamie grinned and let him swab various splotches of purple from various places on her skin and then she did the same for him.

Then Mitch got to work.

* * *

About an hour later, Jamie started to have a pretty good idea as to what the purple splotches did to a human female.

* * *

It started with flash of heat that spread from her cheeks to her chest to her groin. Jamie blinked the heat back and frowned. The poetry had been pretty sexy, but...well, not inflamed-nether-regions sexy. She grabbed a bottle of water which she drained quickly, noticing Mitch do the same. 

The heat didn’t ease and seemed to increase until it pulsed inside her alongside her heartbeat. The pulse throbbed in her temples and then lower. Jamie bit her lip and swallowed back a moan. She glanced at Mitch and saw him bent over the lab table, his hands pressed flat on the top, his head hanging limply. She watched a bead of sweat travel down the length of his face, along his jaw, then fall to the tabletop.

“Oh, fuck,” Jamie breathed and Mitch’s head snapped up, his eyes were wide and his pupils blown.

Their eyes met and the pulse inside Jamie increased.

“This isn’t exactly natural, is it?” she whispered.

“Not.” He swallowed hard and her eyes were drawn to the bob of his Adam’s apple and good God, she wanted to sink her teeth into the tendons of his throat. “Not exactly. Just, ah, give me a few more minutes, okay?”

“Okay,” she said nodding. “But I think you’d better hurry.”

“Yeah, yeah,” he said and she watched his eyes travel down her throat and lower and she flushed with even more heat.

“Mitch.”

“Sorry.”

* * *

Thirty minutes later, Jamie was pretty damn sure that she was going to go insane with desire.

The rest of the team had been informed. Well, they’d been ‘informed’ when Clem came down to check on them and saw Jamie and Mitch tense and supremely uncomfortable. Clem had immediately called Jackson who at first looked as though he was going to burst out laughing, but thankfully repressed it.

They all waited while Mitch ran test after test on the purple powder and another thirty minutes passed and Jamie was reaching the end of her tether.

“Mitch,” she said, her face flushed and every single inch of her skin aflame with heat. “I don’t know how much longer I can deal with this.”

“I know, I, I know,” he said, as sweat dripped down his forehead and his fingers trembled on the microscope dials. “I, uh, Jesus Christ, I think you’re right. It’s some kind of pollen. I have no idea how it works on the insects but on humans-“

“It makes us horny?” Jamie asked her voice rising.

He looked over at her, his eyes blown completely dark. “Yeah. Well, it accelerates our endocrine system and increases our need to have sex. So, uh, yes. Horny. Good word choice. Shit.”

Jamie closed her eyes as the sound of his voice, which had always been a bit of a thing for her, stoked little tremors of desire through her body.

“It makes a kind of sense, actually,” he said tearing his glasses off and rubbing his eyes as he started to pace, on the opposite side of the lab, Jamie noticed. “The animals have been steadily eliminating humans, but we still serve some use for them, so they don’t want to get rid of us completely. It’s possible that they’ve noticed the sterility issue somehow and have engineered a way to get us to procreate. I mean, I don’t think it’s going to actually be effective, but good on nature for giving it the old college try.”

“Mitch, I swear to God, if you don’t stop talking and put your mouth to use on some part of me, I’m going to scream,” Jamie said quickly.

Everyone froze and looked at her, including Mitch, who licked his lips and took a step towards her before he grimaced and shouted, “No! Jesus God! No, I refuse to take part in some, some, insect’s version of Ponn Farr. No way.”

“Then will it just leave your systems?” Jackson asked, his eyes darting between them. “I gotta say, you two look pretty rough. We can see your pulse from here. What if it does something to your heart?”

“Or your lungs?” Clem added. “Pollen can cause breathing problems, right? What if it closes off your airways?”

“I’m not forcing her into some messed up sex pollen spread by termites!” Mitch shouted, his hair wild from where he’d pulled at it and Jamie suppressed a sob. “I’m not doing it!”

“Mitch,” Jamie said softly as she unsteadily got to her feet. “Mitch, it’s okay.”

“The last thing this is is okay,” he said almost plaintively, but his body leaned towards her and his hands flexed.

“I know,” she said. “But, Mitch, it _hurts_.”

He stilled and then nodded stiffly ( _oh, Jamie, bad word choice there_ , she thought). “Guys, go away and don’t come back until we tell you to.”

“Shouldn’t we, uh, monitor you somehow?” Jackson asked wincing.

“What part of ‘go away’ did you not understand?” Mitch said through gritted teeth.

“Come on,” Clem said. “I really don’t think I should be here for this. Good luck?”

Jamie smiled a little and Mitch’s expression softened. “We’ll be okay.”

They both watched Jackson and Clem leave the lab area and once they were sure they were alone, they looked at each other.

His shoulders dropped a little and he whispered, “This isn’t how it was supposed to happen. Jamie, I--”

“I know,” she said taking a step towards him. “I didn’t exactly picture our first time in the lab.”

“You’ve thought about this?” he asked, taking a step closer.

“You saying that you haven’t?” she countered and oh, he was right there in front of her. Her hands immediately pressed against his chest and smoothed over his heart.

“Oh, I have,” he said as his hands slid around her waist and roamed up and down her sides. “God, Jamie, I’ve wanted you since we saw those stupid cats in Brentwood.”

“Less talking, professor,” she said as she curled a hand around the back of his neck.

“Hell, yes,” he muttered before his mouth covered hers.

Their kiss was no tentative ‘oh, hey, we just survived leopards and tigers and bears, oh my’ kind of kiss. This was a _devouring_. Mitch’s fingers dug into the muscles of Jamie’s back as his mouth moved hard over hers. Her nails scraped down the nape of his neck and she was rewarded by the press of him hard against her belly.

She’d read her share of romance novels and had always scoffed a bit at the idea that the heroine could actually pick up scent notes in her hero. 

Jamie wasn’t scoffing now. 

Whether it was a result of the pollen or maybe she just hadn’t cared quite this much before, she could smell everything about him. His sweat was a delicious earthy smell and there were traces of antiseptic and latex from gloves and pine from their rush through the woods. He smelled incredible and she needed to taste him.

She pressed open-mouthed kisses to his throat and licked his pulse. At first with little kitten-like sips and then deep, lingering kisses. She felt his groan under her tongue and her head spun.

At first she thought her dizziness was due to the taste of him, but really it was him actually picking her up and carrying her over to the cot in the corner.

Their hands scrabbled at their clothes and something ripped somewhere but Jamie was beyond caring. When his head descended between her thighs, Jamie wondered if she’d ever care about anything else other than the feel of his tongue inside her.

And then she stopped thinking altogether.

* * *

A good two hours later, they lay tangled in each other, the cot’s sheet just covering their lower bodies. Mitch’s fingers trailed up and down Jamie’s spine and she sighed and pressed a kiss to his bare chest.

“Better?” he asked softly.

“Much,” she said stretching a little and looking up at him with a smile. “You?”

“I honestly don’t think I could feel any better,” he said. “I’ve reached peak ‘awesome’.”

“Is that a challenge, professor?” she asked.

He groaned and shook his head. “No, it’s not. You’ve done me in, Miss Campbell.”

“Back atcha,” she said curling closer to him. “You really think it was sex pollen?”

“Okay, no more using that phrase,” he said. “But, yeah, maybe. I’ll need to research it some more, but I wouldn’t be surprised if nature was trying to correct our sterility problem. I guess we should just be thankful that it only activates the need for sex and not how we actually _have_ sex.”

Jamie wrinkled her nose. “You mean—“

“Did you know that female salmon just lay eggs and the male salmon swims upstream to fertilize them?” he said. “There’s not much physical contact involved.”

“Charming,” Jamie replied. “Sounds better than the earwig who has to have a spare penis in case the first one falls off during sex.”

He peered down at her with raised eyebrows and she smiled.

“Ten years, Mitch,” she said. “Ten years without access to your brain’s incredible encyclopedia of all things zoological. I read a lot. _A lot_.”

“That’s…pretty hot, actually,” he replied.

“The earwig thing?”

“No. The reading thing.”

“As in ‘forced biological imperative’ hot or…?” she asked as her hand drifted down his chest.

“No, as in number one on Mitch Morgan’s list of turn on’s,” he said. “This is…all me.”

She smiled as she lifted her lips to his. The kiss they shared was lazy and deep and sensual, not frenzied or desperate.

“God, I missed you,” he said against her mouth.

_Well, maybe a little desperate_ , she thought even as she said, “I missed you, too. So much.”

“’License my roving hands,’” he murmured as he kissed her neck, “’and let them go.’”

“Oh, you’ve got to be kidding me,” she said breathlessly. 

“’Before, behind, between, above, below,’” he continued.

“Am I your ‘America’?” she asked as he rolled her beneath him. “Your ‘new-found-land’?”

“Yes,” he said as he looked her in the eyes. “This isn’t how I wanted this to happen, but… I can’t let this go again. Never letting _you_ go. Never, Jamie.”

“Good,” she said as she curled her hips up and he slid inside her. “Oh, God, yeah. Never letting you go...”

* * *

A month later, Jamie walked from the bathroom to the lab and found Mitch precisely where she expected him, in front of the computer looking at the map of reported termite swarms.

“Hey,” he said, smiling that little smile at her as she walked inside. “Looks like we were right. There’ve been more reports of the swarms. Good idea about messaging the other safe zones.”

Distracted and not exactly hearing what he said, she replied, “Mitch, I think it worked.”

“The messaging?” he said frowning at the data. “Of course it worked, it was your idea.”

“Not that.” She took a deep breath. “The insect Ponn Farr. I think it worked.”

He stared blankly at the screen before looking up at her. “Jamie-“

“I don’t exactly have access to a drugstore, so, um, will you do the honors and take a blood test?” she asked. “I promise not to make any jokes about feeling a small prick.”

“Jamie,” he said getting to his feet so fast the stool behind him clattered to the ground. His hands cupped her face. “Are you sure?”

“Not in the slightest,” she said. “Which is why I need you do this. I’m this close to freaking out, Mitch, please just do this?”

He nodded. “Yeah, yeah. Okay. I’ll just—yeah.”

Ten minutes later, they stood in complete silence.

“So.”

“Yes.”

Jamie stared at the results and eventually said, “Clem’s going to freak out. She’s getting an aunt. Or an uncle.”

“Yeah.”

She turned to him and watched his face as he also stared at the results. “Mitch, saying something, anything, right about now would be a good thing. It doesn’t even have to be positive, just something that isn’t mono-syllabic-”

“I’m happy,” he blurted out. Jamie froze and he turned to her and shrugged. “I’m… I’m happy. This...makes me happy and I think that may be selfish of me, and this is very much your call and there are a million of sharp-toothed reasons out there to not do this, but… I’m happy.”

Jamie swallowed down the lump in her throat and stepped in close, her arms wound around his neck and she pressed her cheek to his chest, just above his heart. 

He immediately hugged her back, even as he said, “Uh, I either said a very right thing or a very wrong thing and you’re trying to soften the blow.”

“Right thing,” she managed to say. “Definitely the right thing.”

“Oh. Good,” he said hugging her tightly. “Sooo, we’re doing...this?”

“Oh, yeah,” she said nodding. “We’re doing this. And not just because it’s a god damn miracle of nature, but because I’m happy, too.”

“Thank God,” he breathed out and pressed his lips to the top of her head. 

“We should definitely talk more about this,” Jamie said as her eyes closed when he started to rock them slowly. “I mean, this is pretty big.”

“Huge,” he said, his lips still pressed to her head. “And that wasn’t a comment on any future weight gain on either of our parts.”

“You’re so smooth,” she said.

“Hey, we thought we were sterile and it turns out we aren’t, so maybe I am that smooth.”

“I think it’s the termites who’re smooth.”

“And that’s a terrifying thought.”

“I’m going to be your guinea pig for the next nine months, aren’t I?” she asked.

“I promise to rub your feet.”

“Oh, that’s going to be the least you can do,” she said laughing. “Don’t worry, I’ll make a list of how you can make it up to me.”

“Fair enough,” he said. “So, ah, who’s telling the others?”

“I will,” she said sighing. “But, in a minute.”

“Okay,” he said and Jamie closed her eyes as he slowly rocked her. “In a minute.”

They stood for another full five minutes, until Mitch finally said, “Maybe it was the poetry.”

Jamie smiled. “Maybe.”


End file.
